A bird flew over a church tower in a suburb of Cairo. Then, a woman in white and blue robes appeared. For Christians and some Muslims, it was an apparition of Our Lady; for others, it was a hoax created with laser beams, Middle East online reports.

For several weeks, a silent crowd running in the thousands has been gathering in front of the Coptic Church in Al-Warrak, at around 3am, looking up into the sky. When the mysterious light appears over the church tower, a ripple of astonished cries runs through the crowd.

Father Fishay, priest at the al-Warrak parish church said the first person to witness the sight was a Muslim neighbour, Mr Hassan. Fr Fishay said: “He took a video and pictures and distributed them to everyone”.

Mr Hassan said he was sitting at his local coffee shop when at around 8.30pm, he saw a bright light coming from the church. More people on the street began to notice the light and saw a bird circling above the church. At around 2am, an apparition of the Virgin Mary in white and blue robes appeared.

Local Muslims do not deny the sighting, but claim it was a hoax, created with laser beams. But Rami said: “It's her, with her blue and white clothes”.

Fr Fishay said he did not see the vision the first time, but waited until the next night when he said: "we saw the bird circling the church, then the light.”

Kawkab Munir Shehata, 39, a mother of two, says that the Virgin Mary restored the sight she had lost in her left eye. She said she felt extreme pain for 15 minutes and then discovered that her vision had returned.

Some commentators sat the apparition of the Virgin Mary is a response to an article that appeared in a periodical published by Al-Azhar University that questioned the foundations of Christianity.

“Maybe her appearance is to bring people closer together; maybe it will bring about the end of the state of tensions between Muslims and Christians and an end to extremism. Maybe it'll bring back forgiveness like there once used to be in Egypt,” Father Fishay said.

AsiaNews writes: "Maybe it is a sign of hope for Egypt’s Copts, who are 10 per cent of the country’s population, and have lived far too long on the margins of society, often victims of violence."